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Outlet profile

OpenSecrets

U.S. center / nonpartisan watchdog

Owned byIndependent 501(c)(3) nonprofit; no parent company. Resulted from the 2021 merger of the Center for Responsive Politics (founded 1983) and the National Institute on Money in Politics.
FundingPrivate foundation grants (Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Knight Foundation, Democracy Fund, among others), individual donations, and data licensing fees. Operated at a deficit as of its most recent publicly available financials (~$2.5M revenue vs. ~$4.3M expenses), and laid off one-third of its staff in November 2024 due to financial pressure.
On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

The Center for Responsive Politics was founded in 1983 by two U.S. senators of opposing parties, Democrat Frank Church of Idaho and Republican Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania, with the goal of making campaign finance data accessible to the public. For its first decade it published massive printed reports; it moved to an online database in 1996 after the presidential election. Over the following two decades it became a standard reference for journalists, researchers, and fact-checkers tracking the flow of political money. In 2021, the Center merged with the National Institute on Money in Politics — a similar Montana-based organization focused on state-level finance — and rebranded as OpenSecrets. The organization describes itself as nonpartisan, and both Media Bias/Fact Check and AllSides rate it at or near center; however, the conservative watchdog Influence Watch has noted that several of its major foundation funders are associated with left-of-center advocacy networks, a criticism OpenSecrets disputes by pointing to its editorial firewall and Institute for Nonprofit News membership. A significant financial crisis in late 2024 forced layoffs of roughly ten staff members, about one-third of its workforce, raising questions about the long-term sustainability of open-government data nonprofits. It has continued tracking Trump administration officials' financial backgrounds and policy areas in its second-term coverage, maintaining its data-driven approach without adopting an explicit editorial posture toward or against the administration.

Sources

  1. OpenSecrets — Wikipedia
  2. OpenSecrets — Ballotpedia
  3. Center for Responsive Politics (Open Secrets) — Influence Watch
  4. Center for Responsive Politics — Media Bias/Fact Check
  5. AllSides Media Bias Rating — OpenSecrets.org
  6. After $16 Billion Election, Nonprofit Tracking Money in Politics Lays Off 1/3 of Staff — Common Dreams
  7. OpenSecrets Merger Press Release (2021)
  8. OpenSecrets Supporters Page

Profile compiled 2026-09-16; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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